Dropped my beloved M7

Johnmcd

Johnmcd

Well-known
Local time
6:32 PM
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
1,749
Location
Central Coast, NSW - Australia
View My Gallery
... From table height on a hard tile floor in a foreign city.

Landed on the corner of the 80mm and dented it. May have also caused a hairline crack on the base plate that I hadn't noticed before. The rest of the camera seems fine. Aperture ring works but grinds. Gutted.

I have 25 rolls of film and am wondering if the focus will have been knocked out. A friend knows a camera store that will hopefully look at it. Fingers crossed that it's just cosmetic, I can use the film and claim on the travel insurance hen I get back home.

Step forward R-D1 and OM 2...
 
Dear John,

Bad luck! On the bright side, it all seems to be working.

As a quick'n'dirty check of the camera body, if it's OK at infinity, it's usually OK at all distances. For that matter, buy a cheap 3-metre tape measure and see if the RF and focusing scale agree at 3, 2, 1 metres. Measure from the film plane, not the front of the lens.

For the lens, sacrifice a roll as a test, shooting at all distances. Cheap colour neg, dev only, strong magnifier: that's all you need. Unless it's rattling or wobbly, it's very likely OK: it's long periods of vibration, causing internal components to unscrew, that are a bigger risk.

Cheers,

R.
 
Sorry for your bad luck, John. Get yourself out with your backup RD1 (I recall some of the fine portraits you've taken with it and Nokton 40). You can take care of the M7 later.
 
Ouch. Sound like the lens need looking at and therefore it makes sense to send it all in for a check up. That rough aperture ring could mean something is more likely to fail later.
 
Thanks for all condolences. Good advice Roger. I'll do some focus checks and if close enough which I think it is, I'll soldier on and keep my DOF wide.

The M 7 seems pretty tough. When it hit the ground my mate thought I'd cracked a tile. It hit like a brick.


The R-D1 got a work out yesterday. Forgotten what a great image taker it is 🙂
 
You wouldnt believe it. I left the M7 at the place I'm staying and went looking around town. Then I see this older guy with his wife (very distinguished looking couple) and he's packing a M7II over the shoulder, walking down the Kaiserstrasse.

If only I had the M7 on me I could have asked him to help compare focus. Ahh well. He spyed me and his eyes went immediately to the R-D1 I was holding. It was like two gunfighters looking at each others weapons 🙂 Then in an instant we both moved past each other.

Us rangefinder users just can't help it 🙂

MCT, I'll see what I can do and post later.


Cheers - John
 
John, in 2003 I bought my first backpack to carry M7II, 50mm, 80mm and 150mm to France.
Three weeks before departure I picked up said backpack ---unzippered, not closed---by the straps and dumped ALL the above onto, yes, a tile floor.
Cracked the body, dented the filter ring of the 50, froze the focus on the 80.

Doesn't help your situation but perhaps will make you feel better to know at least you didn't screw up as bad as that Canyongazer guy.

Yes, I ALWAYS check the zippers now.
 
Just dropped my M6 with 21/4.5 C Biogon onto... a tile floor. The M6 and Zeiss 21mm finder appear unaffected. Infinity and 2m are dead-on, and there's no misalignment of the RF patch.

The lens had a filter; the ring bent and the filter glass shattered into a zillion pieces, but there is no evident damage to the lens elements. The aperture ring is now hard to turn; the lens is under way to Father Zeiss in Oberkochen for TLC. Fingers crossed. I've had the lens less than a month.

This is the first time in over 20 years that I've dropped a camera or lens. Last time it was an FE2. The metal hood on my 35mm Nikkor absorbed that impact.

Sigh.
 
Last edited:
never dropped a Leica, but I did drop a Pentax MX and 55mm onto a smooth concrete floor once from about 5 feet or so. put a slight dent in the 55’s filter threads and thats about it. no other damage to the camera or the lens. like a damn tank that MX. I’m pretty sure my heart stopped for that instant, but I never knew why because that MX was a beater. a real user camera. I can imagine if my M3 hit the floor id probably collapse onto the floor next to it. the 55’s filter ring is still bent and I still use it almost every day.
 
Finally got my beloved M7 back from the repairers. Only cost me $360 to replace bottom plate, fix aperture ring on lens and check focus.

And it's working as good as ever 🙂 with some test shots on a foggy morning and my first use of 1+50 Rodinal and FP4.

p297549219.jpg


p536712045.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
My year of Unco-disasters is now complete!
2
Replies
20
Views
3K
victoriapio
V
bobofish
Tribute to my sick friend
Replies
14
Views
3K
sf
S
Back
Top Bottom